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Family Fun Time

Thursday, March 12, 2015

This past week, we were lucky enough to spend time with some of our fabulous family!

Adam and Nathan have been brewing beer and it was "bottling night" Thursday, so I tagged along and we were treated to a delicious meal by Meagan and Nathan (and Jude!). Jude is just getting cuter and cuter! He sat in amazement while they bottled the beer.... and may have drooled into the sanitary water. It'll just add flavor!

Saturday morning I really wanted a doughnut, and who can turn down a Krispy Kreme? We grabbed a dozen and headed over to the Bakers to share (and pick up the truck.)

I had to attend a Fashion Show for work on Saturday night, so Dominica was kind enough to join me. It was an experience, to say the least!

The weather was beautiful on Saturday, and even though I didn't feel so great in the morning, I rallied to take advantage of it.

Adam is playing singles this year, and I was able to attend one of his matches. He lost, but it was really fun to watch!

After, we headed up to Lake Arrowhead to meet up with some of my family that were in from Texas. My parents bought a couple lots up there, and it was our first time seeing the place. Definitely a cool area - golf, tennis, batting cages, hiking, fishing, boating…

I volunteered to take Brody and Christopher "hiking" with Michelle. That was.... neat! The trail just kind of abruptly ended and we had to cross two streams (plus the way back, so a total of four). We finally gave up and headed to the playground with the other kids.

After all day in the sun (and water) we headed back to my parents for dinner! It was such a fun day, and now I'm really antsy for the weather to be consistently nice!

On Tuesday, I had the opportunity to tag along on a Behind the Scenes tour of the Georgia Aquarium. Seriously, one of the coolest things, ever! It was so interesting to hear about all of their conservation efforts around the world.

Our initial meeting was in the room with the beluga tank. This is Maris and she's one month from her due date! I kept hoping she would have her baby while we were in there, but no luck. At one point, they had four scuba divers just sitting in her tank watching her, so I figured she was definitely about to give birth. Turns out those are just volunteers who sit in there to get her acclimated to having divers in the tank with her, since they'll be in there when she has her baby.

Penguin Party! Penguins get very attached to their mate (they have one mate their whole life!) and their handlers. This woman said her favorite part of her job was coming in everyday, because this little guy loves her! He brightens up and immediately waddles right over to her. They've been paired for 7 years now!

Ocean Voyager tank from the top

We were there just in time to see them feed the whale sharks. Each shark knows who their "feeder" is and knows not to go in the others' lanes. They are also the biggest fish and can't eat anything bigger than the size of a quarter!

Top of the Tropical Diver tank

Baby penguins! They were hiding, but you can kind of see their furriness poking out. They are only 10 weeks old and almost full grown! Also, it's someone's job to sit in there everyday and just pet them. JEALOUS.

The pump room. If they had used a regular hose to fill the Ocean Voyager tank, it would have taken over a year. They opened up fire hydrants and all sorts of stuff to do the initial fill and it still took over a day! Once it was filled (with Atlanta tap water) they just added a product called "Instant Ocean". Kind of hilarious.

Total nerd out!! It was so much fun!

Photo op with the penguin! I highly recommend the Behind the Scenes tour! I only got a glimpse of it and was hanging on to every word. I will definitely go back and pay for the experience.

We'll wrap this up with mom's birthday! We celebrated with a delicious dinner at Kyma. Happy birthday, mom! Here's to the best year, yet! (But seriously… you're getting a granddaughter.)